A major new cruise ship coming to New York will offer sailings from just $66 a day
Cruise giant Carnival this week unveiled pricing for the new ship it plans to base in New York, and — compared to the cost of a hotel in the city, at least — it's quite the bargain.
Fares for the 4,208-passenger Carnival Venezia will start at just $394 per person for a six-night sailing — about $66 a day.
The 135,225-ton vessel, which is newer and larger than the ship Carnival currently has based in New York (the 3,690-passenger Carnival Magic), will operate year-round from the city starting in June 2023.
Carnival Venezia will offer an unusually wide array of itineraries for a Carnival ship, with 22 different routings from New York that range from four to 15 nights. Destinations for the sailings will include the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Bermuda, New England and Canada.
Among the lowest-priced options for a trip on Carnival Venezia unveiled this week are:
- A six-night New England and Canada cruise starting at $394 per person — about $66 a day. The voyage starts Sept. 23, 2023, and includes calls at Portland, Maine; Saint John, New Brunswick; and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
- A seven-night New England and Canada cruise starting at $454 per person — about $66 a day. The voyage starts Sept. 16, 2023, and includes calls at Saint John, New Brunswick; and Halifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia.
- An eight-night Bahamas cruise starting at $535 per person — about $67 a day. The voyage starts Dec. 10, 2023, and includes calls at Freeport, Nassau and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas.
All the fares above only are available for the lowest category cabins on the ship, which all are windowless interior cabins. However, Carnival is also offering relatively low rates on ocean-view and balcony cabins on the vessel, too.
As of this week, ocean-view cabins (that is, cabins with a window) on the eight-night Bahamas sailing start at $674 per person — just $139 more than a windowless cabin. Balcony cabins on the sailing start at $794 per person. That works out to about $99 a day for a balcony cabin.
All fares are per-person base rates that include accommodations, meals and entertainment but not port taxes and fees, which range from $179.20 to $193.82. Cruise lines typically advertise their fares without port taxes and fees included but add these costs to final bills at the time of checkout.
Related: The 8 classes of Carnival Cruise Line ships, explained
As is typical with cruise ship pricing, the per-person fares are "based on double occupancy," which means they are available only to passengers when booking two people in a cabin. Customers who want to have a cabin to themselves will pay more.
Passengers also will pay extra for things like alcoholic drinks, Wi-Fi and service charges while on the cruises.
Cruising From New York with an Italian Twist
When it begins sailings out of New York in 2023, Carnival Venezia will be an outlier in the Carnival fleet. Completed in 2019, the three-year-old vessel was originally built for Italy-based Costa Cruises, a sister brand to Carnival, and is being transferred to Carnival in 2023 without major alterations to its Italian-themed design.
Originally named Costa Venezia, the ship will retain that name on its hull, and most of its interior venues will remain the same as when it sailed for Costa. It'll also retain its distinctive gold-and-blue funnel that is a trademark of Costa vessels.
In short, it'll basically be a Costa vessel marketed by Carnival, with the caveat that it will have a new crew made up of Carnival staffers.
Carnival originally planned to call the ship a "Costa by Carnival" product, to differentiate it from the rest of the Carnival fleet. However, it's recently begun marketing the ship as a vessel that offers "Carnival Fun Italian Style."
Carnival is in the process of absorbing several Costa ships as the latter line struggles to fill vessels due to the closure of China to cruising in the wake of COVID-19 and soft demand for cruises in Europe. Costa was a major player in China cruises before COVID-19 brought cruising from the country to a halt.
Carnival Venezia was originally purpose-built to sail out of China.
Both Carnival and Costa are owned by Carnival Corporation, the world's biggest cruise company.
Carnival Venezia won't be completely devoid of Carnival's signature shipboard venues. In an announcement about Carnival Venezia's first New York itineraries this week, Carnival said the vessel would undergo a few changes before entering service for the line. Updates include re-theming some interior venues to make them more consistent with the Carnival brand.
When it debuts in New York, the ship will have a Carnival Waterworks waterplay area, for instance, and a steakhouse called Fahrenheit 555 — a signature Carnival venue.
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